Hello crafty friends! Today I am sharing this fun Spring themed project! I have been super anxious to not only create something more bright , spring themed but anxious to use this beautiful paper collection from Carta Bella called Spring Market. I absolutely love it!! I purchased this at Tuesday Morning.
I had made one of these last year for a swap in a facebook group .
They are super easy to create and it adds to the already fun and easy pocket letters. This is how I created mine, hope u will give it a try!
Here is some process photos I created for my project!
I began by getting a regular Manilla File Folder or like I did, I had these black and white file folders that I purchased at Tuesday Morning. I measured and cut to size the design papers that I would use for both the outside and inner areas of the file folder. The best way is to apply the adhesive, for this project I ended up using Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue, just like some of the other white Helmar glues, I only put small dots scattered throughout the surface I'm adhering because if you add too much , you risk your paper wrinkling up and could cause tearing. So no one says you can't use white glues for gluing paper but you just have to add a little, a little goes a long way.
Once I was done adhering all of the paper to the file folder. I set it aside while I worked on my pocket letter. I picked one of the design papers from Carta Bella Spring Market, I cut some 2.5 X 3.5 pieces to go in the pocket letter sleeve. I actually only had to use one 12x12 sheet that is double sided design paper, I did this because I really liked the design that was on the back of my pocket letter.
There are different ways of embellishing the front part of you sleeve. I myself love the 12x12 sticker sheet that came with this collection. So I just picked out the stickers I liked and just stuck them where I wanted them to go. This saved me on time plus since I didn't have any ephemera that came with this collection, I knew that using the stickers would look just as beautiful!
After finishing up with the pocket letter, I need to make the holes where I would be attaching the pocket letter onto the file folder. This process is easy, just place the sleeve to the bottom inside of the file folder and where the holes of the sleeve are i just added a small dot using a light colored marker. Took the sleeve off, I used my Tim Holtz paper piercer or like I call it "Pokey tool" to punch holes thru the file folder so that I can then finish it off by putting back my sleeve and aligning where I made the 3 holes and added some super cute decorative brads I had in my stash. This allows the sleeve to hold in place. You can then add some lace, any kinda trim, or even washi tape to cover that area up for a much more cleaner look.
I actually didn't add it to mine right away so that you can see where I had poked the holes thru. I did however add some washi tape to my finished project .
I didn't add any of the goodies that go inside the pocket letter quite yet because I was still deciding on what I would be adding in there for when I decide to send it to a crafty friend soon! I then just added some pockets to the back bottom and front bottom to my file folder for additional pockets space to add additional goodies such as cut up paper, or something you might want to send to your friend but making sure it isn't something bulky so your altered file folder stays shut and somewhat flat without too much dimension on the inside.
I then took a short snack break LOL as you can see on my photo above ^^^ I had actually shared this photo on Instagram as a sneak peek type post and too see what other crafty friends were working and possibly snacking on their crafty areas!! You can see that post Here if you would like to check it out!! A just for fun photo here in the middle of my creating since I know many of you have your snacks on your areas as you are crafting !! NOTE: NO chocolate stains on my project, just incase your wondering LOL!
I then decided just to add a tag to the inside pocket as an added little something . As some of you may or may not have noticed I love to paper piece stamped dolls , for this one I used one of my favorite ones from Prima Marketing Julie Nutting Dolls, who is the Mindy Doll.
I stamped directly onto a Julie Nutting Tag that comes in pad, which these particular ones have been hard to find but here is a small photo of how mine looked when I first bought it. <<<<<<<<<----------------
Since then I've lost the cover to the pad . You can use other Julie Nutting Tags that I've seen that are readily available or even just any other sort of tag of you choice. I just love how the script on these pad shows on my stamped image. I don't have do do any coloring and because in this case as said before I love to paper piece.
The glue that use which is one of my favorites from Helmar is Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots, I used it in between my stamped paper pieces that make up the clothes on my stamped doll and finished it off with a small white ribbon bow on her skirt and added longer ribbon pieces to the tag itself. Even her hair band gets stamped with design paper and just adhered flat onto the image. Just something clean and simple!
Lastly, I moved onto the cover of my file folder. I picked out some beautiful lace trim I had in my stash from I believe is from a great facebook page called Crafty Me Shop. I adhered it using the Helmar Fabric Glue I added a fabric flower and a button on top of that wide lace. Then added some beaded trim on the edge of the folder. I then cut out some of the left over design paper and a sentiment from the collection I cut and did some layers and again adding some Helmar Liquid Dots to prop them up on my page and added a fussy cut rain boot from one of the tiny scrap pieces that was heading to my waste basket.
The sentiment reads "YOU HAVE BUT ONE LIFE, ENJOY THE JOURNEY"~
Whew now that was a long blog post but I do hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved typing it out for you!! I hope that I was able to inspire you to create something like this! I'll see you all next time!!
~Hugs~
Jeanne
